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Applying technologies has recently caused language education to undertake influential modifications. Hence, this study tried to investigate the impact of using technology in form of multimedia on improving grammar knowledge of Iranian high school students and also examined their attitudes toward multimedia-based mode of instruction. To do so, three intact classes of lower intermediate students were randomly divided into three groups: multimedia, multimedia + textbook, and control group. After homogenizing the groups regarding their proficiency level, the pre-test was run and results indicated no significant difference. Treatment lasted for 8 sessions, during which the first experimental group was taught through using multimedia elements like cartoons, texts, and Power Point Presentation. The second group had their textbook besides multimedia, while the control group was instructed traditionally by means of the textbook. Comparing the groups’ scores on the post-test revealed the superiority of multimedia + textbook group over the other groups in their grammar test performance. The questionnaire outcomes also showed more positive tendency of the students in this group in comparison to the multimedia only group toward application of multimedia programs. Findings of this study might open a novel way to assist EFL learners to increase their grammar knowledge more successfully.

مطالعات میان-رشته ای اخیرنشان داده است که امید نقش مهمی درپیشرفت تحصیلی وعملکرد شغلی دارد. با توجه به کمبود تحقیق درحوزه بینابینی امید وتدریس زبان دوم یا خارجی، برای اولین بار،این مقاله به ارائه مفهوم سازی طبقه ای امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی می پردازد. پس ازتهیه طرح تحقیق اکتشافی به روش ترکیبی، با استفاده ازتکنیکهای مشاهده وانجام مصاحبه عمیق، جمع آوری داده های کیفی بنیاد محورازمدرسان مجرب زبان انگلیسی تا هنگام حصول اشباع نظری داده ها ادامه یافت. 38شاخص مرتبط با هفت طبقه اصلی شناسایی گردید. برای قضاوت درباره اعتبار یافته های کیفی، پرسشنامه 38آیتمی امید طراحی گردید و سپس به صورت پایلوت اجرا شد. درمرحله بعد، به منظورآزمون نمودن تعمیم پذیری یافته های مرحله پایلوت ، پرسشنامه پالایش شده 35 آیتمی امید برنمونه کانونینس ازجمعیت ایران شامل 228مدرس زبان انگلیسی از استانهای تهران،چهارمحال- بختیاری، واصفهان اجرا شد. آنالیزهای آماری داده های مرحله آزمون، 35 شاخص مرتبط با هفت مؤلفه اصلی سازنده ساختار امید را تایید نمود. بنابراین،عوامل اصلی شامل ارتباط بین فردی، مقصد اجتماعی،هدف گذاری،احساس،یقین،منبع، وتلاش موردانتظارتأیید گردیدند. به علاوه ، طراحی ، ساخت، واعتبار سنجی مقیاس سنجش 35 آیتمی امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی در محیط ایران انجام شد. همچنین، قدرت توضیحی تمامی شاخص های دخیل در ایجاد امید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی به عنوان زبان خارجی مورد آزمون قرار گرفتندوبرآوردشدند. یافته های این پژوهش، ساخت برنامه های مداخله گر آموزشی را روشن تر می سازد تا مدرسان زبان انگلیسی به سطوح بالاترامید برای تدریس زبان انگلیسی دست یابند.

Recent interest in teaching thinking has lead different researchers to examine different approaches in education to find effective methods and approaches for teaching thinking. Through a qualitative case analysis, this study attempted to identify the effects of the infusion model of teaching thinking implemented through a dialogic approach on a PhD candidate’s critical thinking skills. The study occurred over a semester in a PhD course which aimed at reviewing and discussing language teaching issues critically. A number of interactions and reflective journals produced by the participant during the course was analyzed qualitatively for finding different thinking abilities and elements. A number of thinking abilities and elements proposed by Paul and Nosich (1993) in a higher order thinking assessment model was used for analysis. Analysis of the interactions and reflective journals showed that the number of thinking abilities and elements increased over the course which was indicative of the effectiveness of the infusion model used through a dialogic teaching approach in developing critical thinking skills.

: The purpose of the current attitudinal study is to investigate the attitudes and opinions of language teachers toward the implemented ELT program resulted from the Fundamental Reform Document of Education in the Iranian Ministry of Education. Three items were investigated: Teacher’s Practice, Teacher Training Courses, and Materials. Following the rigorous and systematic procedure, the quantitative approach was applied and the 5-Likert scale with 30 items was used so as to determine the issues mentioned before. First the items were extracted based on the FRDOE and, thereafter, the primary questionnaire was developed and after ensuring of its validity and reliability the final version was obtained. Then, after ensuring its practicality, the questionnaire was distributed among 240 language teachers. The results showed that the ELT based on the new program had inconsistency in a number of respects with policies approved by the policy-makers. The findings showed that the lack of agency of the language teachers is the main reason for the failure of the new program and it is recommended that language teachers’ contribution should be taken into account before-, while- and after administrating and implementing the new program in ELT program in the future.

This study explored the relationship among EFL teachers’ self-efficacy, language proficiency, and classroom management. A total of 110 Iranian EFL teachers of different levels of high schools and private language schools in Tehran participated in this research. The data were collected through two questionnaires and one test: the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale and a sample TOEFL were administered in two different sessions while two sessions of each teacher’s class were observed by two raters who used the Murdoch(2000) checklist to score the effectiveness of each teacher’s teaching. To find out the relationship among the three variables of this study, that is the teachers’ self-efficacy, language proficiency, and classroom management, a Pearson correlation was carried out. The results revealed that teachers’ self-efficacy was correlated with their language proficiency and that language proficiency and effective classroom management were not correlated. The study provides useful insights into the need to help teachers develop their language proficiency that, in turn, has relevance for their self-efficacy.

With the rapid expansion of deploying mobile instant messaging applications such as Telegram for the purpose of language learning, it is quite apparent that language research in this regard is lagging behind the trend. This study addressed the matter by exploring how language learners utilize a Telegram group for the purpose of language learning. In this regard, the activities of a Telegram language learning group with 74 active members was observed and recorded for a week. To capture the patterns of utilization of the group, a thematic analysis was conducted on the compiled corpus of approximately 45000 words gathered by recording the messages posted by the group’s members. The analysis indicated that the themes of utilization of the Telegram language learning group were discussing content-based topics, seeking and sharing resources, recommending conversation opportunities, sharing learning strategies, and giving corrective feedback on each other’s language.  The findings of this research illustrated the potential of mobile messaging applications for creating opportunities for self-initiated and collaborative language learning.

Metadiscourse involves the self-reflective linguistic expressions that refer to the evolving text, the writer, and the imagined readers of that text. This study utilized an interpersonal model of metadiscourse to examine the authors' use of metadiscourse in the Abstract sections of Applied Linguistics Research Articles (RAs). It investigated the distributions of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers at a corpus of 110 RAs published by celebrity and non-celebrity authors to determine the ways academic writers deploy these resources at a hight-stake research genre to persuade readers in their discourse community. The findings revealed that frame markers with a relative frequency of 112 were the most frequent strategy category for the non-celebrity authors. Moreover, evidentials with a relative frequency of 3 were the least frequently used strategy for the celebrity authors. There were no significant differences in the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers between celebrity and non-celebrity authors. These findings might have implications for the teaching of academic writing and scholarly publishing and for novice writers who aim to publish their studies in academic journals.

In modern education, teachers are regarded as a central and focal part of educational systems and are responsible in the development of education. It should be mentioned that teachers have an influential role in planning and offering an effective and significant educational program. The significant role of teacher-related variables in affecting teachers’ performance and learning outcomes of students has been widely acknowledged in various educational contexts. Therefore, the investigation of teacher variables has received research attention in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. To contribute to this line of research, the current study was set to investigate the role of teacher reflection and self-efficacy in predicting burnout among Iranian EFL teachers. To this end, three validated scales measuring these variables were administered to a number of 171 male and female teachers. As for the data analysis, Structural Equation Modeling was utilized to test the hypothesized model of the constructs. The results indicated that teacher reflection accounted for 12.1% of the variance, and teacher self-efficacy accounted for 25.2% of the variance in burnout. Although both variables had a unique effect on teaching burnout, teacher self-efficacy turned out to be a stronger predictor of burnout. Concerning the implications, teacher education programs may pay more serious attention to teacher self-efficacy and reflection as they proved to play a significant role in reducing teacher burnout.

Allusions in literary texts are among the elements which can cause intercultural misunderstanding. In this study, the translation of the  allusions of two narrative poems selected from Nizami’s The seven Images (Haft Gonbad) were studied. To this end, the frequent types of implicit allusions were extracted from the poems: The Black Dome and The White Dome . Next, the original text was compared with its English translations to identify whether these allusive meanings were found and transferred in their translations. To achieve this goal, Leppihalm’s (1997) model of translation strategies for key-phrase (KP) allusions was employed. The findings indicated that the most frequent strategy selected by the translators is literal translation. Rendering the poems into English literally, the translators ignored the implicit meanings underlying the allusions. The findings can have implications for translating literary texts.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of varying frequency patterns (FPs) of words on the productive acquisition of a young EFL learner in a home setting. Target words were presented to the learner using games and role plays. They were subsequently traced for their frequencies in input and output. Eighteen immediate tests and delayed tests were administered to measure the oral production following the treatments. To examine the efficacy of varying FPs, target words were grouped into four sets: High Input/High Output (HIHO), Low Input/Low Output (LILO), High Input/Low Output (HILO), and Low Input/High Output (LIHO). The findings revealed that the differences among the FPs were statistically significant. Meanwhile, Wilcoxon signed-rank test identified a significant discrepancy between the words with LILO and HIHO frequency patterns. The findings demonstrated that the differences in FPs led to different productive gains, and higher word production cropped up when words occurred very frequently both in input and output. This study shows that higher teacher talk in tandem with higher learner talk could boost lexical production by a young learner in meaning-focused instructions.

The present study investigates the effect of e-mail on Iranian learners of English and focuses on teaching thewriting skillvia e-mail. More specifically, the study investigates (a) whether using e-mail has any statistically significant effect on improving high school students' writing skill, and (b) whether the proficiency level has any relation with students’ writing improvement through using e-mail.To this end, 150 high school Iranian students were selected randomly and divided into 3 proficiency levels, namely high, mid, and low, based on their performances on an Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The participants at every proficiency level were divided into 3 subgroups to receive 3 methods of instruction, namely traditional face-to-face, through using e-mail, and through both the traditional method and using e-mail. After 3 months of instruction, a posttest was administered and the results were submitted to ANOVA. The results obtained revealed that using e-mail had a statistically significant effect on improving students' writing skills. The Scheffe post hoc results showed that the group with the e-mail treatment performed almost the same as the other 2 groups at the high proficiency level; in other words, the group at the high level did not benefit much from using e-mail; however, thelow and intermediate proficiency level participants did benefit from it. The findings are finally discussed with regard to how email can be exploited as an educational aid by teachers and learners.